Colour decoded

Livingetc's colour expert Amy Moorea Wong on a dining room made for moody, candlelit feasts

- By Amy Moorea Wong

Am I about to sit down to dine or wade through a magical, mossy wilderness at sundown? This space’s two-in-one combination is a decorative adventure, its textured, murky green-y yellow-y walls merging the exhilaration of midnight-in-the-forest with the decadence of dinner-is-served-madam.

This is when a painted ceiling comes into its own. With immersive colour. With mottled has-it-always-been-like-this texture. The hero shade here is both subtle and soul-squeezing and as a 360-degree, all-around tone, it becomes not only more striking, but transportive. Am I still indoors? Am I still on planet earth? Am I still even alive or am I just floating in a sea of colour in some new dimension (it ’s true, the abstract art may nudge you towards the more detached conclusions).